Trump's budget proposal would be paid for on the backs of children, poor people, the elderly and the disabled, with a couple hundred billion left over for the Pentagon. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

The grinding cruelty that is our daily meat and mead was crystallized in a document put forth on Monday by the White House. Trump and his people called it a budget plan, but in reality, it was a $4.4 trillion wish list of all the malice and greed at the necrotic heart of the modern Republican experience.

After Trump's declaration to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the Palestinians pulled out of the so-called peace talks. In retaliation, Trump halted more than half of US aid to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, which provides basic humanitarian services to 5 million Palestinians. Now the European Parliament is moving in to help the Palestinian refugees.

A newly expanded federal lawsuit seeks class-action status for thousands of Oklahoma residents it says are being extorted by a collections company working for most of the state's sheriffs and courts. If successful, the suit could impose sweeping changes on how the state -- which ranks No. 1 in locking up women and No. 2 in locking up men -- operates and pays for its system.